Yale-NUS student named 2018 Rhodes Scholar

21 November 2017

Yale-NUS College Class of 2017 student Nicholas Carverhill, 22, has been selected as a 2018 Rhodes Scholar. The Rhodes Scholarship is a postgraduate award given to exceptional students from around the world to study at the University of Oxford, with the aim of nurturing public-spirited leaders of the future.

Mr Carverhill, from Saskatoon, Canada, studied Urban Studies and Global Affairs at Yale-NUS College. He has worked with Rohingya Muslims in Bangkok, volunteered with injured migrant workers in Singapore, and spent a summer supporting the recruitment of teachers for northern Indigenous communities in Canada. He was a Pearson Scholar, Yale-NUS Global Leader Scholar, and is currently a fellow in the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) programme. At Yale-NUS, Mr Carverhill managed an undergraduate global affairs online publication, and was the founding President of the Yale-NUS College Debate Society, which allowed him to spend considerable time supporting and working with debate initiatives and programmes in about a dozen countries.

Each year, 95 outstanding young women and men are awarded the Scholarship, from 64 countries worldwide. Famous Rhodes Scholars include former US President Bill Clinton, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, Singapore opposition politician and lawyer Chen Show Mao, Stanford University President and Canadian neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne, and Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Barton Gellman.

On receiving the Rhodes Scholarship, Mr Carverhill said, “I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to further my studies in a programme dedicated to service-oriented education. I am proud to represent Yale-NUS College, and the many other communities that have made it possible to receive this scholarship—it is the investment that others have made in me that truly made it possible.”

Mr Carverhill intends to pursue a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Oxford, which he feels will give him the methodological and theoretical dexterity to work in collaboration with different communities. “After my fieldwork experiences from courses taken at Yale-NUS, I feel called to work with vulnerable communities on issues related to urban politics,” shared Mr Carverhill.

Dr Trisha Craig, Yale-NUS College’s Dean of International and Professional Experience said, “We are so thrilled for Nicholas, who exemplifies the global mindset and desire to improve the world that characterises Yale-NUS students. His work crosses disciplinary boundaries and his commitment to the most marginalised populations spans borders from Canada to Asia. The Rhodes Scholarship will allow him boundless opportunities to further his ability to effect change and we look forward to seeing his future achievements.”